Saturday 27 January 2007 04.11 EST
First published on Saturday 27 January 2007 04.11 EST

The row over prison overcrowding threatened to engulf the home secretary, John Reid, last night after two more judges called into question his advice on sentencing and the chairman of the Youth Justice Board resigned in protest at the rising number of children in custody.

Rod Morgan, who quit the YJB, said the country was "on the brink of a prisons crisis", three days after Mr Reid told courts to issue custodial sentences more sparingly as jails reached capacity.

Yesterday the official prison population was 79,731, some 356 higher than the same time last week and close to the maximum 80,114 capacity, but slightly lower than unofficial figures for Monday and Tuesday. The Conservative leader, David Cameron, urged Mr Reid to ditch ambitious proposals to break-up the Home Office and concentrate on the job in hand.

Professor Morgan focused on the rise in the number of under 18s in custody, which last month was 2,841, up 224 on December 2005. That includes 331 offenders in custody for serious offences, 1,931 in custody for other offences and 579 on remand.

"We have tonight lots of people in police cells because there is no space for them in custody and that's true for children and young people also," Prof Morgan said in a pre-recorded interview for BBC2's Newsnight. "The Youth Justice Board has a target to reduce the number of children and young people in custody by approximately 10% by 2008. That target is written into our business plan, it has been agreed with the Home Office, it was incorporated in the Home Office five-year plan which was published early last year, and yet we're going backwards."

Prof Morgan also described a 26% rise in the number of children brought into the criminal justice system between 2002-03 and 2005-06 as "swamping".

Ministers had decided to advertise Prof Morgan's job after his three-year term rather than extend his contract. The board's future is also subject to the threat of reorganisation as part of a departmental review, but the new chairman will be offered a three-year term.

Speaking at the Guardian public services summit in St Albans, Mr Cameron condemned "another example of failure of policy, planning and political will at the Home Office".

Lady Scotland, the Home Offfice minister, offered praise for Prof Morgan's work. But a Home Office spokeswoman said: "We refute the claim that young people are being demonised and criminalised. Considerable emphasis has been placed on providing activities for young people. We remain unapolagetic about the need to tackle anti-social behaviour by anyone, regardless of their age."

Mr Reid, Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, and the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, made an appeal to the courts on Tuesday that prison should be used only by serious, persistent and violent offenders. The move was endorsed by the lord chief justice on Wednesday.

But on Thursday a judge in Mold, north Wales, said a man convicted for downloading child pornography would receive a suspended sentence rather than jail because of the ministers' communication.

At Exeter crown court yesterday, Judge Graham Cottle released Keith Morris, a 46-year-old man convicted of four sex offences against a teenager, on bail ahead of sentencing. Morris has previous convictions for sex offences against boys. The judge curfewed Morris from 8am to 5pm and said he would receive a custodial sentence. But he told the court: "There are difficulties remanding people in custody at the moment and the only reason I am having any discussion about this is because of those difficulties."

Later, at Northampton crown court, Judge Richard Bray sentenced three men for their part in a pub brawl and criticised sentencing policy. "I am well aware that there is overcrowding in the prison and detention centres. The reason our prisons are full to overcrowding, and have been for years, is because judges can no longer pass deterrent sentences," he said.

Mr Reid said last night his appeal to judges had been a reminder, not a change, of the guidelines. "The guidelines under which they operate are exactly the same this week as they were the week before. They have been the same for several years. They are quite clear: violent, persistent, serious offenders should be given custodial sentences or sentences that protect the public. But if they are less serious or not dangerous to the public then they should be put to either paying fines or community service."

At a glance

Sunday Floats plans to split up Home Office into two separate ministries.

Tuesday He and two other ministers remind judges of sentencing guidelines as prison numbers hit a new high.